too many establishments treat music as an afterthought, and it's interesting to put some thought into it so that it complements the business.

This is an utterly baseless and prejudicial sentiment. "I don't like the music therefore the owner didn't think about it." The restaurant owners I know sweat blood over the music - ask cgod. Meanwhile the large organizations you describe - A&F and Starbuck's - have entire teams of people focused on the music and whoever ultimately picks the playlist has to make them happy as well as serving the brand; we had a tie-in with AFI wherein we got their album a week before it dropped which meant we had to revise every Hot Topic playlist to use and compliment AFI while also preserving whatever else Hot Topic had going on. Then, of course, we had to explain how our system was "hacked" when the AFI album showed up on torrent sites; we had to deploy forensic investigators to point out that the audio files available had minute amounts of analog distortion because someone had unplugged our encrypted player from the amplifier and run the signal into their iPhone.

Much like your Lil Jon issue. it doesn't take much to unplug the music and plug in your own.

I think Mr. Sakamoto's goal is to listen to music he likes while sipping miso. And I think it's an insult to trades most people don't think about when they presume "oh, I hate the music therefore the guy who picked it is an idiot."